When Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was gearing up to go into production, Johnny Depp made a widely reprinted comment about a "fissure" in his enthusiasm for the project; doing a little damage control later on, he also reiterated that he loves playing Captain Jack Sparrow so much he'd "do Pirates 7 if they asked me." Those two sides of Depp's personality are coming into play again as Disney puts the gears in motion on Pirates 5-- according to THR, Depp is game for it but wishes they'd slow down a little bit and give him a bit of a break from the eyeliner and wig.

In the print edition of the trade, which is apparently on newsstands now, Depp has the following perfectly reasonable thing to say:

"It's not something where I would say, 'Let's shoot it next month to get it out by Christmas 2012. We should hold off for a bit. They should be special, just like they are special to me."

Depp wound up bent over backwards with work on the second two Pirates films when they were shot back to back in 2006 and 2007, and also has plenty of other projects in the works, so you can see why he's not anxious to rush into Pirates production yet again. According to this THR story Disney already has the Pirates 5 script from Terry Rossio, but if the fourth film opens well at the end of this month, it'll prove that four years between Pirates films is perfectly reasonable, allowing the studio to keep their star happy and wait a little while.

The studio has suggested to Rob Marshall that he reprise his directing duties for the fifth film now that he's done On Stranger Tides, and with producer Jerry Bruckheimer also back, all the elements seem to be in place to keep this franchise chugging along. Unless the unthinkable happens and On Stranger Tides flops this summer, count on seeing Pirates 5 a few years down the road.